Just before I moved to Nashville in January, I got this love note/birth story from one of the mamas who attended my prenatal yoga classes last year in Athens GA. Nicole had such youthful energy, nevermind that by medical standards she met the “advanced maternal age” criteria. Pshaw! I loved Nicole’s questions and observations in class each week. She has a curious nature, and was always wanting to learn more about what she was experiencing in her pregnancy. She was so very excited to be pregnant! Here’s what Nicole had to say about her experience with induction, epidural, and drawing her yoga … [Read more...]

I met Carrie Bishop about three years ago when she came to my prenatal yoga class. She had so much enthusiasm for her practice and her preparation for birth. Even in those tired-out days of late pregnancy, she beamed an inspiring spark! I especially appreciated her thoughtfulness about her birth team: two doulas, a midwife, her twin sister, and of course, her husband, Jacob. Their precious boy is just over 2 years old now, and Carrie admits to being "a little weepy about it" but also really excited: "His speech development is really exploding right now so every day Jacob and I are looking at … [Read more...]

It’s a perfect September fall day, warm and sunny, not as humid as summertime. We canoe down the Broad River—me in the front, my husband, Matt, in the back, and our son, Bodey, in the middle. Eight weeks pregnant with baby #2, I tire easily and can’t exert myself. I turn around in the canoe to sit. Leaning back, I simply stare up, noticing how the sky is edged by the trees. I feel like I’m one with those trees. It’s a precious moment in time, the kind you savor forever and recollect when you need to come back to happiness.
THE PREMONITION
What happens next feels beyond … [Read more...]

As a prenatal yoga teacher, I love a birth story that includes a little yoga! So I adored getting this note last spring from mama Ellen, who filled me in on the birth of her beautiful daughter Safia Rose…
Safia was born April 2 at 1:48 p.m. She was 7 pounds 8 ounces and 19-1/2 inches long.
I was in labor for 15 hours and yoga really got me through!
Especially the Sat Nam mantra - which got me through the hardest parts and helped push the baby out!
The Sat Nam mantra we often used in class was inspired by the lovely Prenatal Kundalini Yoga and Meditation for Mothers to Be DVD by Gurmukh … [Read more...]

Mama: Maureen Hunt
Baby: Madeline, born March 3, 2007, at 4:27 p.m., 8 pounds 3 ounces, 20¼ inches
Excerpted from Belly Button Bliss: A Small Collection of Happy Birth Stories
With my first baby, I had an uncomplicated, scheduled Cesarean section at thirty-nine and a half weeks. My baby was breech, and she stayed that way despite the acupressure and moxibustion I’d tried to encourage her to turn.
After the C-section, we were both physically fine, but I felt I had lost my power as a mother. I felt like I didn’t give birth to my baby. The doctors pulled her out of me, and … [Read more...]